$70K worth of tobacco seized in Springhill prison search

Staff at Springhill Institution seized about $70,000 in tobacco as well as a number of other unauthorized items, shown in this photo, during a Dec. 7 search. (Contributed)

UPDATED 7:05 p.m. Friday

No charges have been laid following the discovery of about $70,000 worth of tobacco inside the Springhill Institution.

But some inmates in the medium-security institution have been barred from the prison’s maintenance shop, assistant warden Alfred Legere said Friday.

Staff and corrections officer recruits were conducting a physical search of the shop on Dec. 7, as part of the recruits’ training, when they discovered 44 bales of tobacco packaged in what appeared to be plastic wrap. They also found drug paraphernalia, crack pipes and a shank.

The recruits, from the Holland College’s Atlantic Police Academy, were at the prison doing a work term.

Legere said the packaged tobacco, worth about $900 on the outside, could fetch upwards of $70,000 inside the jail’s walls.

He said he believed it was the largest tobacco seizure the prison has experienced since the institution implemented a smoking ban about four years ago.

Immediately after the seizure, Legere said staff conducted inmate assessments and banned those they suspected could be involved from the shop.

While many people — staff and inmates — have access to the maintenance shop, none of the evidence to this point directly connects any person to the contraband, the deputy warden said.

Officials don’t yet know how the tobacco made its way into the prison, he said.